Perveen Mistry Investigates (1920s Indian Mystery)

Posted On October 15, 2023

Hi Readers! Here’s your one-stop shop for all the reviews for Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry Investigates series. There are five books published; The Widows of Malabar Hill (alt title: A Murder in Malabar Hill), The Satapur Moonstone, The Bombay Prince, The Mistress of Bhatia House and The Star from Calcutta. The highlight of these books is that Perveen Mistry is the shown as the first woman lawyer in Bombay and all the stories have a significance with that aspect. I had high expectations, which were only partially met, but it’s definitely a series I would recommend you all to read.

~~THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL~~

Have you ever tried Honey Chili Fries? Despite having contrasting flavours of sweet and spicy, it just works. The Widows of Malabar Hills & its protagonist Perveen Mistry are like that. It’s a combination of sweet mystery and spicy history. But, if you are looking for hard-core mystery or researched history, then this one isn’t for you. Just like fries, it’s more of an appetizer kind of a book. It is to be enjoyed before you want to immerse yourself in a big intense traumatic book. And, if you are not the kind of reader who prefers intense books, then you can order triple fries because there’s more of Perveen Mistry with three more books!

The Widows of Malabar Hills is written in a dual story line, one which is entirely about Perveen’s life in 1916 and another where Perveen is involved in a legal capacity for the three widows of Mr. Omar Farid in 1921. Reading about Perveen in 1916 and 1921 is like reading about two different women, which truly goes to shows the ingenious writing style for this character arc. We see a naïve girl quitting college and following a boy evolve into a capable career-oriented lawyer. If that’s not the glow-up, then what is?

The 1916 storyline was a bit much for me. It was necessary to establish Perveen of the 1920s, but a more edited version of that storyline would have been ideal. As for the 1921 storyline, I wouldn’t call it a mystery, but it did have elements of murder, inheritance mystery, withholding of information and more. I think what made this book standout for me was learning about how Parsi women lived during that era. It isn’t something I have ever read about in books. And, showing us the extreme side of progression with the Mistry family as opposed to the extreme orthodox way of living with Sodawalla family really brought out the balance, in a way. In the next books, I am hoping to see Perveen in a more intelligent, vocal, proactive mode and eventually fighting cases in the Court in a masterful way. I have rated The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey at 4/5 stars!

~~THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE~~

The Satapur Moonstone is the second book in the Perveen Mistry book series by Sujata Massey. Sequels either make or break the series and in this case, it was the latter. Set on a hill station, Perveen is sent as a representation of the government to meet with the queens of the Satapur Palace. Perveen was tasked with deciding about the education of ten-year-old Maharaja Jiva Rao because his mother Choti-Rani Mirabai and grandmother Rajmata Putlabai had contrasting opinions. But naturally, Perveen finds herself in more danger around the palace that runs deeper than the education debate.

While I hadn’t loved the first book, I did like it a lot. So, compared to that, this one was weaker. It took the first 250 pages to build the premise. There’s is a lot that I didn’t enjoy in this book; too many characters, super slow burn, wooden dialogues with no flow, predictable enough ending. There was also only one story line in this book. If we had a past-present writing structure like the first book, it would have been better. I understand that the Cyrus storyline ended organically (glad it did), but I’d have loved reading about Perveen’s Oxford adventures with Alice. Maybe there would have been some queer exploration and representation along the way.

As for the atmosphere, I didn’t feel it. It was perhaps because living in a city has cushioned me to all luxuries that have translated into basic needs. But, going from A to B in a palanquin while it was raining outside made me feel uncomfortable instead of how it was intended. I also felt the red herrings in the form of superstitions were unnecessary. Neither did the story show any meaningful impact of a goddess, nor did it delve into superstitions in a village.

The major things I liked about the book were how there was a focus on education, modernization of transport in villages and the happy ending of women empowerment. I have rated The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey at 3/5 stars!

~~THE BOMBAY PRINCE~~

The Bombay Prince is a story where the Edward VIII, Prince of Wales arrives in Bombay. The city is divided with one group welcoming him while the other group rioting against him. At the center of it all is the Woodburn college where there is a suspicious death.

As usual, Perveen Mistry acts as a detective rather than a solicitor in yet another novel. The writing is similar as to the first two books, where there are a lot of robotic conversations with a disjointed continuation of the story. I wasn’t too fond of the characters either and was not able to connect with them. Even the ending was extremely mellow which did not directly connect to the Prince. Aside from the main mystery, we see more of Perveen and Colin romance, which was really interesting to read given the era.

We see a divide among Indians and British, but we also see a divide among the different religions within Indians. You would think that we could have united despite of religion in order to gain independence, but no, which really wasn’t that surprising. I think that in terms of the history, it was interesting to read what actually happened in 1921 and also to know different people’s perception. Though fiction, these are facts picked from the actual history and are always a representation of the reality, if slightly altered. This series is not what I had imagined it would be, but now that I am in it, I will stick it out. I have rated The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey at 3/5 stars!

~~THE MISTRESS OF BHATIA HOUSE~~

In The Mistress of Bhatia House, Perveen Mistry: solicitor at law returns. This time defending an ayah Sunanda Chavda employed at the Bhatia House who was charged with the crime of abortion in 1920 India. What starts as something against a powerless woman turns into the theme of the book focusing on what power can do in the wrong hands and eventually the right ones. The book is set at the slowest of pace where the actual content of the plot is minimal.

With each addition of a book in this series, it being set during the pre-independence era, throws new light on the kinds of discrimination people suffered. Every person was discriminated against by some set of people – Indians, British, Parsis, Hindu, Muslim, Jews, pregnant women, single women, mothers, working mothers, fathers. This book was glaring with this classification across various conversations. After comparing the 2020s to 1920s, there’s so much improvement and yet also at such a slow pace.

After reading through 350 of the 414 pages, we finally understand how it was all connected – not in a brilliant way, but just in a roundabout kind of a way. It’s a messy ending not written with the kind of depth that was required, devoid of social commentary to go along with it, to make it all impactful. After reading through 300+ pages of Perveen commuting here and there, talking to this and that person, the last 100 pages felt quite rushed in comparison.

Now, the major winner for these books are its characters. When the protagonist is the first female solicitor in Bombay, you have high expectations. Of course she would be smart, but will she also be empathetic? Well, that was revealed slowly and unsatisfactorily in this one. In the first half, she comes across as annoying, just because she cannot grasp why her baby niece Khushy always keeps crying. Perveen is constantly annoyed or frustrated over the baby’s crying, up to a point it becomes unbelievable how a woman who is empathetic towards random strangers can’t be downright human towards Khushy & Gulnaz. She finally overcomes this and becomes a good aunt but those bonding moments are not written quite as frequently as I would have liked. Then we have Mr. Mistry who is always the fun boomer-type parent. Hangouts with Alice and Colin were not as much in this one, which was disappointing. The new characters were eccentric and I didn’t enjoy any of them, including Sunanda who had a very one-dimensional arc.

Overall, I think I will always continue reading this series because I am familiar with the characters and because it’s 1920s Bombay and it’s something different. These are not the standard mystery books or slow burn books or even historical fiction. They criss and cross between all these genres leaving readers wanting for more. I have rated The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey at 3/5 stars!

~~THE STAR FROM CALCUTTA~~

The Star from Calcutta is the fifth book in the Perveen Mistry Investigates series, and I have to say that after the last three average books, I quite liked this one. This time the Mistry lawyers have a very high-profile client from the film industry. This alone made it all the more interesting. You would think that given it was 1920s, the actors would be more grounded with some sense of morality. But, as we read, we understand just how complex and multi-dimensional they are. And all of it unfolds very nicely because of the masterful writing.

Another part I enjoyed was how Perveen was at the location of the crime this time, making her a witness or even a person of interest. Perveen and Jamshedji take on the contract for Champa films, which is owned by Subhas Ghoshal. His wife Rochana is the star and executive producer. Perveen is invited to the premiere of their movie in the massive estate that the Ghoshals have leased from their financiers. When there is a murder, Perveen is the one who finds the body. Soon, we see the multi layers of various characters, whispers, histories, arguments the night before, unlikely friendships and more. Rochana also disappears on the same day. And, for the first time, we see somewhat of a distance between Perveen and her long-time friend Alice who was also at the party.

Now that I am pondering more about the book, I believe I enjoyed it more than I first realized. The world of glam is always magnetising as it was even in fiction. There was a murder to start with, which always makes a high stakes situation more interesting. Then we understand the murder of was a very important person. And then we find out the multiple reasons that could be the cause of death but the actual one was so bizarre. These books are always softcore mysteries, and yet I breeze through. It’s not a typical whodunit or mass murders or your typical predictable thrillers. They offer more and we get to meet the constant characters again which is delightful. The major thing I hated about this book was that being set in the 1920s, it only talked about the fictional film companies and movies. There was no mention of Dadasaheb Phalke, basically the Father of Indian cinema either in the book or in the Acknowledgements. If there was ever a big disappointment while reading a book by an Indian author, then it was this blatant ignorance of not honouring the pioneers. I have rated The Star from Calcutta by Sujata Massey at 3.5/5 stars!

Until next time,